Vintage Mirror Anodized Alluminium Italy 1960s

Face to Face 1963

Mixed media (marker, watercolor) on paper. signed and dated lower right. Jean Cocteau was a multifaceted artist: writer, playwright, playwright, he also dabbled in visual arts, loving to experiment with all the avant-gardes of his century. Cocteau published his first book of drawings in 1923, at just 36 years old. In it the poet portrayed his friends Raymond Radiguet, Pablo Picasso, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, but also numerous scenes of daily life in Paris, Nijinski's Russian ballets, allegories, caricatures, poetic images. Cocteau revealed himself to be a talented sketcher, but above all an artist capable of capturing the essence of faces, behaviors, human weaknesses. The theme of the face, or rather of faces, often two profiles facing each other, vis à vis, recurs in his pictorial production. In 1962 the artist completed the construction of the open-air theatre in Cap d'Ail, on the French Mediterranean coast, whose flooring is decorated with this subject, two faces with a Greek profile facing each other, with an eye in between; the subject was then re-proposed by him in the following period - moreover the one imminent to his sudden death -, with different variations. In the drawing presented here we find the two Greek profiles, separated by the third eye but also by two twisted snakes, while in the drawing of the theatre we find leaves. The work is presented in a frame.

Mixed technique on canvas. Unidentified signature and date lower right. Portrait of a male figure, austere and firm in his gaze and pose, with his eyes fixed on the viewer and his fist clenched; one can glimpse the refined armrest of the chair, in gilded and worked wood, a sign of comfort and luxury. The work is presented in a contemporary frame in gilded paier maché, with small losses and missing parts. On the back of the frame is the label of the French manufacturer that produced it.

Oil on canvas. Northern European school, early 1900s. Unidentified signature on the lower right. The landscape represents a glimpse of uncultivated countryside, with patches of vegetation, meadows full of heather, crossed by a path that leads towards the nearby hills, passing next to a stable. The work has a small cut at the top center. It is presented in a frame.

The Joys of Mother

Oil on canvas. Early 1900s. The painting reproduces in rather detail the work of the same name painted in 1866 ca. by the Emilian painter Gaetano Chierici, an artist who became famous for a large production of scenes of peasant life, captured in rustic interiors, interpreted through an intimate sentimental adhesion and a clear formal realism, which tell of a small happy and always serene world, often joyful despite poverty, because it is devoid of any intent of social denunciation, but rather representative of the happy conception of family that the artist had. These paintings of his were so successful with the bourgeoisie of the time that they were replicated several times by the artist's own workshop and subsequently also by other painters. Chierici almost always set the scene inside a humble peasant kitchen, full of objects described in minute detail, populated by children intent on their daily activities, by adults who watch them happy and amused: in this scene set in a poor room, a woman sitting spinning, looks smiling tenderly amused at her two little children, the eldest who, standing, steals the pacifier from the little one lying on the floor on a bed of blankets, who stretches out his little hands towards his object of pleasure. The work, in the first canvas, is presented in a carved and gilded wooden frame from the late 19th century.

The Mask

Oil on canvas. The painting reproduces in rather detail the work of the same name painted in 1869 by the Emilian painter Gaetano Chierici, an artist who became famous for a large production of scenes of peasant life, captured in rustic interiors, interpreted through an intimate sentimental adhesion and a clear formal realism, which tell of a small happy and always serene world, indeed often joyful despite poverty, because devoid of any intent of social denunciation, but rather representative of the happy conception of family that the artist had. These paintings of his had such success with the bourgeoisie of the time, that they were replicated several times by the artist's own workshop and subsequently also by other painters. Chierici almost always set the scene inside a humble peasant kitchen, full of objects described in minute detail, populated by children intent on their daily activities, by adults who watch them happily and amused: here we see the child who suddenly enters the kitchen, wearing a grotesque mask on his face and thus frightening his little sister, who abandons her food to run and cling to the skirts of her mother, intent on the hearth, who scolds her son brandishing the ladle. The work is presented in a carved and gilded wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Oil on canvas, applied on panel. Central Italian school of the 18th century. It depicts the evangelical episode in which Jesus welcomes the children to himself, urging his disciples not to push them away: "Let the children come to me, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven". The scene is full of figures that overlap and intertwine: in the foreground Jesus seated on the right, opens his arms in a sign of welcoming the children who approach him, urged by their mothers; in the background the disciples, with Peter recognizable in the center who tries to push a boy away, but their gaze is turned to Christ, who looks at them and urges them to welcome them. In the background of the scene some architecture appears, in particular the pyramid stands out which symbolically represents the tension, the ascent towards the top. The painting has an evident lack of canvas in the center, patched with the application of a wooden panel to the back. It has other small traces of widespread restoration. It is presented in a 19th century frame.

Female Portrait 1937

Oil on canvas. Trace of signature lower left, full signature on the back, with the date. Trained at the Tallone school, Moretti Foggia was mainly a landscape painter, who offers veristic views characterized by a very bright and material chromatic palette, mainly reproducing his native Val d'Ossola. But his production also includes several portraits, among which is the successful one of this elegant and smiling lady, portraits in which the influence of Cesare Tallone is evident, in the brush stroke and in the use of color, as well as in the attention to the female world. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Highland Cattle Loch Venachar

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Further signature and title on the back. A herd of Highland cows, a typical Scottish breed, is depicted on the shores of the Scottish lake Venachar. Henry Robinson Hall was an English artist who specialized in Victorian landscapes, and in particular glimpses of the Scottish countryside animated by herds of typical animals. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the first half of the 20th century.

Courtship at the Well 1873

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Haier was a Viennese painter and photographer, but lived for a long time in the Czech Republic. His pictorial production includes portraits and many genre scenes, set like this one in the Czech rural environment. We have a seller of jars, transported on the back of his donkey, who entertains himself at a well in amorous conversation with a girl, who in the meantime offers a tuft of grass to the docile beast. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The painting looks at the similar work by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), datable around 1560-70 and now preserved in the Prado Museum, of which our painting takes the composition of the figures, changing the entire background and the clothing of the characters. Veronese's work was so successful that it was replicated by his own workshop, with numerous variations: our work probably derives from one of these copies, replicated at a later time. The episode depicted is narrated in the biblical book of Exodus and tells of the finding of the little Moses, left by his mother in a basket along the banks of the Nile River, to save him from the massacre of the children of Israel perpetrated by the Pharaoh; the Pharaoh's daughter, who went to the river with her entourage, finds him and saves him, adopting him. The figures in the scene are depicted in eighteenth-century clothing, in particular the princess' dress stands out for its richness and sumptuousness; the only exotic element is the presence of a colored servant in the retinue, while the background also refers to a landscape of northern Europe, with thick woodland vegetation. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in an 11th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Dutch school of the late 18th-early 19th century. On the back of the frame, an early 20th-century inscription reads "The Surgeon, based on a subject by Bega", referring to the Dutch painter Cornelis Bega (1620 - 1664) who stood out for his genre scenes, usually interiors and in a popular style. The interior of a house is shown here, where a woman is treating a man's leg wound, assisted by her little daughter and the curious old woman. The work is presented in an early 20th-century frame.

The Country Road 1905

Oil on canvas. signed and dated lower right. The Hungarian painter Antal Berkes painted landscapes in the early years of his career, but later devoted himself to glimpses and views of cities, Budapest, Paris, Vienna. This painting still belongs to the first production, proposing the view of a country road, which passes through a forest where some farmhouses are located; on the dirt road there is a cart pulled by horses. The painting is presented in a period frame.